Erland & The Carnival

Erland & The Carnival, Butterfly Recordings **

There’s nothing unusual about rockers looking to folk music as another source of inspiration, but over the past several years it’s become slightly tiresome. For the most part, you can’t deny the best of earnest intentions from the likes of Graham Coxon, who at least has the instrumental dexterity. But this lot – ex-Verve guitarist Simon Tong, engineer/producer David Nock and Orkney Island folkie Gawain Erland Cooper – come across as knowing pretenders to a thorny crown. The come-all-ye band perform renditions of traditional Scottish and English folk songs in a serviceable manner that brings to mind amateur-hour stabs at the back catalogues of Pentangle and (early) Fairport Convention. The music clatters along without spirit or motivation, underscoring how in thrall the band is to the British folk pioneers they singularly succeed in paying lip service to. www.erlandandthecarnival.com

Download tracks: Tramps and Hawkers, Was You Ever See